Towards Biodiversity Information Systems for decision-making in conservation and

sustainable use in Costa Rica

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data,

3-6 March 2004, Campinas, Brazil

William Ulate R.INBio

Contents

– Costa Rica today– What is INBio?– Mission– Biodiversity Information– SINAC: National Conservation Areas System– INBio´s Core Process– Administrative Structure– Species, Specimens and Ecosystems– Biodiversity Information Systems– The Atta Biodiversity Information System – Decision-making in conservation and sustainable use

Costa Rica Today

Evolution of key indicators from the 2000 UNDP Human Development Report

INDICATOR UNIT 1940 1960 1980 2000

UNDP Human Development Index

Coefficient N.D. 0,55 0,75 0,71

Population 1.000 656 1,199 2,276 3,943

Poor Homes % N.D. 50 19 21

Life expectancy Years 46,9 62,5 72,6 77,4

Child Mortality 1.000 123 68 19 10,2

Literacy % 73 84 90 95

Per capita PIB1990 US$

0,702 1,08 2,022 4,028

Costa Rica TodayNational Income for some of the Main Products

What is INBio?

National Biodiversity Institute of Costa Rica

• Non-governmental non-profit organization• Declared of public interest• Created in 1989• Strategic alliance with SINAC• www.inbio.ac.cr

Mission

“To promote a greater level of awareness of the value of biodiversity, as means to ensure its conservation and improve the quality of life of human beings.”

Biodiversity Information

We need:– scientifically validated,– relevant,– representative,– up-to-date,– multiple scales, – accesible

information.

SINAC

National Conservation Areas System

• Collections from Protected Areas

• Partnership alliance

• Information needs

• Capacity building

• Parataxonomists

Administrative Structure18 Strategic Action Units and 5 Thematic Areas

THEMATIC AREAS• Biodiversity Informatics• Inventory and Monitoring

• GIS• Bioprospecting• Conservation for

Development

STRATEGIC ACTION UNITS

Informatics Developments

Arthropods

Plants

Fungi

Mollusks

Vertebrates

SIGBio

Bioprospecting

<Cross-cutting issue for all Units>

Species, Specimens & Ecosystems

Biodiversity Information Systems

• BIMS– Development: 1993 – 1995– Production: 1995 – 2000

• Atta– Development: 1997 – 2000– Production: 2000 - today

Biodiversity Information Systems

• BIMS– Intergraph– All collections into one database– Key points:

• Multiple levels for identification: kingdom to variety• Identifications logging• One register for each specimen

Biodiversity Information SystemsAtta

• Conceived to support INBio’s core process

• Designed to reinforce the idea of an institutional system

• Aimed to last longer than BIMS

• Designed to be more scalable and more adaptable to new technologies

• Attend other users needs (not only scientists)

Biodiversity Information SystemsAtta

Atta

• Scalability• Common names• Flexible querying• Embedded GIS tools• Multiple security levels• Object-oriented design• Export info in standard formats• Multiple collections administration• Access to multimedia information via Internet• Eco-geographic, species, specimen level info.• Identification and taxonomical hierarchy history

Atta

• Time-frame:• Geographical-frame:• Taxonomical levels:

Geographic layers:• Collections: 5• Database size:• Concurrent users:• Avg. daily page hits:

• 1989-2003• Costa Rica• 22 (extendible)• 15 (extendible)• 5 (extendible)• 9.5 Gb + 3.5 Gb• Up to 40 (internally)• 12000

Atta

• Species UBI’s:• Collected specimens:• Identified specimens:• Identified species:• Daily new species (avg):• Ecosystems Inventory:

• 2,314 (+1,686 unpublished)

• 2,900,000• 900,000• 19,758• 0.71• 44% of the country

Atta Effective queries to Atta’s dynamic Web-reports

during the first 16 months of operationbetween May 2001 and Oct. 2002

• Total external queries:• Total Countries:

1. U.S.A.(3443) 11. Venezuela (50)

2. C.R. (2864) 12. Japan (49)

3. Spain (294) 13. Belgium (46)

4. Mexico (289) 14. Argentina (39)

5. Colombia(100) 15. Netherlands(37)

6. Canada (92) 16. U. K. (34)

7. Germany (85) 17. El Salvador (28)

8. Guatemala(80)18. Sweden (21)

9. Brazil (62) 19. Austria (16)

10. Peru (62) 20. Chile (15)

• 7.9 thousand• 40 countries

21. Australia (14) 31. Italy (7)

22. Ecuador (13) 32. Norway (7)

23. Nicaragua (12) 33. Panama (5)

24. Russia (12) 34. Portugal (5)

25. France (11) 35. Israel (4)

26. Puerto Rico (11) 36. Bolivia (3)

27. <Unknown> (10) 37. Cuba (2)

28. Korea (8) 38. S. Africa (2)

29. Switzerland (8) 39. Malasia (1)

30. Honduras (7) 40. Ucrania (1)

Atta Effective queries to Atta’s dynamic Web-reports

during the first 16 months of operationbetween May 2001 and Oct. 2002

Most wanted:1. Plants

2. Insects

3. Mollusks

Atta (Querying statistics from May 2001 to Oct. 2002)

Very different types of Institutions (367):

– Academic

– Museums

– Conservation institution

– International Cooperation

– Agricultural Research

– Pharmaceutical

– Internet Service Providers

Humboldt-Universitaet zu BerlinUniversite Catholique de Louvain

Australian Museum

The Nature Conservancy

Commission of the European Communities

U.S. Department of AgricultureAgriculture and Agrifood Canada

Numico Research (The Netherlands)

Tokyo Telecommunication Network Co., IncJaring (Malasya)Andinatel S.A. (Ecuador)

Decision-making & sustainable use

Last year, after a process of analyzing the impact of the institutional information in conservation and sustainable development, two important documents came out:

I) Sustainability StrategyII) Institutional Essence

Based on these, and according to the mission and vision statements, we were able to define the “Institutional Strategy for 2004-2006” and the “2004 Operative Annual Plan” to coordinate all 18 Units’ goals and activities.

Decision-making & sustainable use

I) Sustainability Strategy

1. INBio recognized as an excellence center in its biodiversity and conservation related activities

2. INBio as a flexible and efficient organization

3. INBio integrated into effective international, regional and local networks

4. INBio counts with stable financial sources (66/33)

Decision-making & sustainable use

II) Institutional Essence

It considers:What are we,What do we do,Where do we come from,Where do we want to go

to determine:a) Target audiencesb) Types of informationc) Partners

Decision-making & sustainable use

a) Prioritized target audiences– Politicians– Biodiversity Managers– Resource users– Communication media and opinion-formers– Educators and religious leaders– Conservation NGO’s

Decision-making & sustainable use

b) Types of information1. Composition, structure and function of:

– Species:• Taxonomy, abundance, density, geographical distribution,

distribution by sex and age, habitat requirements and, in general, natural history informationnatural history information.

– Genes:• Diversity among species and populations, as well as

processes that allow genetic exchange

– Ecosystems and landscapes:• Distribution, extension, fragmentation, impact, species

conforming them and ecological functions.

Decision-making & sustainable use

b) Types of information (cont.)

2.2. Conservation statusConservation status:– Representative– Efficiency of Wild Protected AreasEfficiency of Wild Protected Areas– Status of Ecological Processes

3.3. MonitoringMonitoring

4. Threats

5.5. ValuesValues and uses

6.6. Management modelsManagement models

Decision-making & sustainable use

c) Partners - collaborators

• Scientific and business communities

• Public authorities

• Donors

• Other Institutions and OrganizationsOther Institutions and Organizations

Thank you